Revenge
by Quintessence88
Summary: That was the ninth lie, the last one she was willing to accept. Set during 3x02


**I'm having a lot of fun writing about Arthur/Joan who are my favourite couple! I hope you enjoy the story and review it! **

That was the ninth lie, the last one she was willing to accept.

Joan looked herself at the compact mirror wiping the tears away, she made a deep breath trying to recompose herself. She was still a very beautiful and attractive woman who spent part of her life chasing a man – who she also married – without being capable of reaching him, at least not really, simply because he didn't want to be reached. Every time she thought he'd have trusted her, every time he promised he would have done, reality showed her differently and that file on her desk was the proof.

"_Call me if you want to vent or just to drink something"_ Paul said before leaving her office.

He was a dear friend, the same she asked for the favour to spy Arthur two years before when she thought he was cheating on her, the same he trusted her so much to share secret information he found out about her husband again but for other reasons.

The woman she was before that news would have burst into her husband's office asking for an explanation, yelling at him because he let her in the dark again but not that time, not anymore.

She swallowed her pain, wrote a note and put it in an envelope, her secretary would have delivered it to Arthur after she left the office.

"Paul?"

"_Hi"_

"It's me, Joan. I need that drink so much so if you're still available…"

"_Sure, 7 pm at Allen's?"_

"Perfect, see you later"

"_Bye"_

"Bye"

It wasn't the best thing to do but she did it anyway.

Three hours later, when she walked out Langley, her secretary was coming up to the seventh floor to deliver the message…

When she arrived at _Allen's_, Paul was already there with a bier in his hands and a smile on his lips and at that moment she realized she really needed that: a man who trusted her, a man who looked in her eyes not for lying but because he was happy she was there. And for the first time she did look at him too.

It was weird, she fell in love with Arthur as soon as she joined the agency and from that moment it was as if she never looked at anyone else anymore, she loved him so much he was her everything, no matter how smart, handsome or caring other men she met were, she only had eyes for him, for his husband. If someone told her she'd have been seated in a bar letting another man to console her, she'd have laughed hard without believing in any single word but she was there, a married woman drinking with a friend who was attracted to her.

Her phone kept ringing all the time, it was Arthur and she kept rejecting his calls. Each call was a long sip of bier she was drinking to forget, to swallow the bitterness, the failure of her marriage, of her hopes, of her love for him.

At the end of the evening Joan was drunk. She could lie saying it happened by mistake but it didn't, she did on purpose to free herself: yes, she wanted to be free to do something stupid she'd have regretted, she wanted to hurt Arthur so badly to make him feel how she felt every time he pushed her out.

The last sip of her bier tasted like revenge like Paul's lips on hers and his hands on her body. It was wrong, completely wrong and even if she forced herself, she couldn't have done.

"I can't" she panted trying to take a breath "I'm sorry, I can't"

She run away from Paul's apartment without looking back.

Driving home Joan thought she was about to cheat on her husband, to screw someone else just for hurting him. How could she become such a person? She waited for the guilt to come but it didn't, Arthur pushed his luck too much and that was the result.

She opened the door hoping not to find him waiting for her: wrong thought.

"Where have you been?" he yelled worried "I called you all the evening"

"Maybe if I rejected your calls I didn't want to talk you" she went upstairs to undress but he followed her

"And you thought I'd have stopped? You wrote me you want to divorce on a fucking note Joan! Not only you didn't tell me face to face but you sent your secretary to deliver the message"

"Why?" she shouted "Because you tell me things face to face, don't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Don't." She shook her head angry "Don't play this game with me Arthur! You kept pushing me out, lying but at last truth always comes out"

"What the hell do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter anymore" she slipped her satin nightgown

"It does Joan! I don't want to lose you, I love you!"

"I was about to fuck someone else, do you still love me now?" she stated shameless

She watched different kind of emotions changing his husband's features: disbelief, hurt, rage.

"Who?"

She burst into laughs "You men are so predictable, you're asking who but not why"

"Why are you doing me this?" he pleaded

"Why did you keep lying to me?"

_Silence_

"You said you were about to… but you didn't. Why?"

"Because I still love my husband"

He got closer and kissed her roughly but she pushed him away, he did it again and she slapped him but no matter the pain he forced their lips to meet and pushed her on bed. She was fighting repeating him _I hate you_, _I hate you_ between their heated kisses while his hands were touching her everywhere: she hated and love him and that was consuming her. All alcohol in her veins was making her wild, she wanted it rough, she needed it rough, she needed to vent all her rage and frustration.

She flipped him sitting on top of him. His blue eyes shone like two sapphires in flames, he didn't expect that, he didn't expect the hurry in her hands which were unbuckling his belt… who was that woman, gorgeous and damned? And what did she do with his always controlled wife?

She freed him from his boxer and positioned herself on him, with a long stroke he was fully inside her. She closed her eyes for the pleasure and the pain, few moments after she started moving enjoying the feeling of him filling her. He put his hands on her waist going deeper each thrust and making her moan but soon she pushed them away finding her pace and riding until the oblivion.

She came hard cursing him for that passion, for that crazy love she felt for him and he followed her soon after.

The quiet after the storm. She was lying on his chest recovering from her high, his heart was beating fast as if it was about to explode and for the first time during that day she felt peaceful.

"I will never sign divorce papers, I don't care, I will never do it. I love you" he said kissing her forehead

"I love you too lucky bastard"

He laughed hugging her tight. It was just another day in Arthur and Joan Campbell's life…


End file.
